Fears
by kingszey
Summary: We all have them. The students of Hogwarts reflect on Lupin's infamous lesson with the boggart.


_Just a weird little thing that I wrote in the early hours of the morning. Basically there is a boy and a girl from each house in it._

* * *

_**SLYTHERIN**_

**Astoria Greengrass, age twelve**

The day that Professor Lupin brought a Boggart to class was the worst day of my life. He told us that his third years had all had a great time with them, and that they'd loved the experience. (But he was probably just talking his darling little Gryffindors. I'm sure they all loved it, because they're all afraid of the _honourable _things, like other people dying or dementors or ghosts or something. You know, things that are actually scary.)  
So when everyone else was forming a line in front of the Boggart-inclusive cabinet, I sidled up to him and asked in what was an accidentally small voice _what happens if the thing you're scared of isn't physical? What if it's the idea of something that scares you the most?  
_To which he answered – quite reasonably – that Boggarts can speak into your mind too, if that's where your deepest fear lies.  
Now listen carefully, because this is the part of the story that explains why this became the worst day of my life. I stepped up to face the Boggart and had it scream into my head about how people keep replacing me because I'm _worthless _and _annoying _and _even your own parents don't want you, you silly brat.  
_And then I passed out.

**Blaise Zabini, age thirteen**

I didn't really see what the big deal was about the Boggart. It all happened as I had expected it to – I stepped up to the wardrobe and the Boggart turned into my mum, who was bloodied and broken and looking rather dead. I turned it into something light-hearted. I stepped back.  
I knew it'd turn into my mum, even though she's a total bitch who never really gave a damn about me. She's still the only family I've got, and I don't want to lose her. And I guess that just shows why I belong with these other screwed up Slytherins.  
(At least I didn't pass out like old Astoria Greengrass. Daphne carried on about it for weeks and weeks, and I ended up feeling a bit bad for Tori. She's not easily intimidated, so I can only imagine what that thing was telling her.)

* * *

_**RAVENCLAW**_

**Cho Chang, age fourteen**

I really liked Defence Against the Dark Arts in my fourth year. Professor Lupin and his hands-on, spontaneous ways of teaching made it one of the best years of my life. But I could not face his Boggart, because that would mean that everyone would see my deepest fear.  
My aforementioned deepest fear is loving someone, by the way. Which sounds totally stupid and a little bit Slytherin, but it's true. I can't stand the idea of someone knowing all about me – who I am and what I like and how I work. It's frightening. I'm an introvert and I like my privacy, thank you very much.  
I couldn't have the whole of Ravenclaw hearing about this absolute pathetic-ness, so I kept drifting to the back of the line that class. Professor Lupin looked disappointed, but he didn't do anything. He understood.

**Terry Boot, age thirteen**

The class with the Boggarts was my favourite class of the year, but it was a tiny bit intense. You know, seeing your classmate's deepest fears and all that. It shows you so much about the people you thought you knew. For example, when Padma Patil stepped up the Boggart turned into this big, intimidating guy, who kept looming over her and telling her that she'd better not tell anyone or else he'd hurt or more, and that no one would believe her over him so she'd better keep her dirty mouth shut – stuff like that. She was so shaken up that she had to be taken to Madam Pomfrey for a calming draught.  
I heard from Michael Corner that Cho Chang refused to go up and face the Boggart during the fourth year's lesson. As if the whole of Ravenclaw doesn't already know that she's afraid of love.  
It was the lesson with the Boggarts that made me realise what a truly screwed up world we live in. Some people have it so bad, and we're only thirteen. I almost felt ashamed that mine turned into a Banshee. What's brave about being scared of a Banshee? There is no glory in such fears.

* * *

_**HUFFLEPUFF**_

**Hannah Abbot, age thirteen**

Merlin, I hate Boggarts.  
I'd had a little experience with Boggarts in my childhood. Not many people knew that I'd had a twin sister, Rachel, who'd died young. When I was five, we had a Boggart in the cutlery draw in my house, and it had appeared to me as Rachel, dead. I had screamed and screamed until my family had come in and gotten rid of it, explaining to me that it wasn't real. And dear Rachel kept petting my hand to tell me that it was alright, even though she didn't really understand what was happening. A few months later she died for real. There were some heart complications. And that's all I'd known.  
So in that stupid staffroom with that stupid Boggart everyone saw my sister lying on the floor, five years old and a glassy smile on her face. And that led to stupid rumours and stupid stares of stupid false sympathy in the hallways. All I wanted to do was forget it, really.

**Ernie MacMillan, age thirteen**

There was quite a lot of fuss over the infamous Boggart lesson of Professor Lupin's but I confess I found the affair remarkably unremarkable.  
That's not to say that I didn't did a huge fright when I stepped forward and was faced with an enormous Boggart-Basilisk. When that Basilisk was on the loose in our second year… Merlin, it scared me shitless, for lack of a better word. No, I'm not a fan of Basilisks.  
And I understand that there are some who have led more troublesome lives and may be weary at the prospect of other's seeing their deepest fears, but really, there needn't have been such a fuss over it. It's Just a Defence Against the Dark Art lesson, after all.

* * *

_**GRYFFINDOR**_

**Lavender Brown, age thirteen**

I swear, if Professor Lupin gets any cooler he's going to start puking awesomeness.  
That sounded stranger than I had intended it to, but his lesson with the Boggart in the staffroom was better than anything I'd ever done before. What kind of teacher takes a class of thirteen year olds and gets them to face their biggest fear, then makes it into an entertaining and not at all depressing lesson? A cool one.  
Nothing remarkable happened in our class, though I've heard some pretty intense stories from the classes which did it after us. Lupin's turned into some sort of social worker-come-counsellor for all of us.  
All my Boggart did was turn into a rattlesnake. I mean, it was scary, but exciting too. All I had to do was make it into something amusing – so I made sure it tied itself up into knots.

**Seamus Finnigan, age thirteen**

All I can say is that I'm very, very glad that my Boggart turned into a Banshee.  
See, I never really knew what my biggest fear was. I'm scared of a lot of things, to be completely honest. So I half expected it to turn into something embarrassing and revealing of my true nature that I would never live down. So really, a Banshee isn't bad at all.  
The best part of it was watching what other people's turned into. There's really no other way to find out what someone's deepest fear is – if you asked someone, they probably wouldn't tell you. A person's fears say a lot about them, and I learnt a few things about my classmates that day.  
And the silver lining to the whole affair – Snape dressed as Neville's Grandma. That guy is a legend, honestly.


End file.
